Seismic surveying is used for identifying subterranean elements, such as hydrocarbon reservoirs, fresh water aquifers, gas injection reservoirs, and so forth. In performing seismic surveying, seismic sources and seismic sensors can be placed at various locations on an earth surface (e.g., a land surface or a sea floor), or even in a wellbore, with the seismic sources activated to generate seismic waves. Examples of seismic sources include explosives, air guns, acoustic vibrators, or other sources that generate seismic waves.
Some of the seismic waves generated by a seismic source travel into a subterranean structure, with a portion of the seismic waves reflected back to the surface (earth surface, sea floor, or wellbore surface) for receipt by seismic sensors (e.g., geophones, hydrophones, etc.). These seismic sensors produce signals that represent detected seismic waves. Signals from the seismic sensors are processed to yield information about the content and characteristics of the subterranean structure.
Seismic data received from seismic sensors, in the form of seismic traces, are typically represented digitally using a number of bits. Conventionally, static bit allocation is used such that a static number of bits (e.g., 16 or 32 bits) represent seismic data values. An issue associated with static bit allocation is that precision can be adversely affected. Use of static bit allocation can be associated with loss of fidelity in a seismic trace, particularly in areas of the seismic trace with large amplitude contrast.